They don't make cars like they used to -- they're better

Remember pumping the brakes?

It's probably something your dad taught you years ago, perhaps even your drivers ed instructor, way back when.

It was a skill that could keep you on the road and out of trouble in slippery conditions.

It's also the wrong thing to do, unless your car is as old as the advice.

That's because new cars pump the brakes for you. Step on the pedal on an icy day now, and you may feel a slight vibration as sensors stop and release the wheels hundreds of times a second to bring you safely to a stop while maintaining directional control.

The same goes for tune-ups, warming up the engine and a whole array of practices that used to be as common as the leaded gasoline you used to use to top off your tank.

Cars just ain't the same anymore.

And, thanks to airbags and better designs, they've never been safer. Now the U.S. government, with the auto makers' blessing, is going to take it one step farther.

Calling it perhaps the "greatest safety innovation since the safety belt," National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Nicole Nason said electronic stability control would be required in all new vehicles in coming years.

Using some of the same technology that provides anti-lock braking, the system senses when a driver may lose control, and automatically applies brakes to individual wheels to help keep the car under control and avoid a rollover.

Already standard on about 40 percent of new vehicles, mostly SUVs and luxury vehicles, most automakers have announced plans to make it standard in the next few years.

The fact that it is available isn't the only reason for stability control to be standard, of course.

One study found that the system could lead to a reduction of 10,000 deaths a year if all vehicles had it, almost a quarter of the more than 43,000 people killed on the road each year.

And it's especially important against rollovers, which while comprising only about 3 percent of crashes, result in more than 10,000 deaths a year.

Nebraska, with long stretches of flat roads, wouldn't seem to have such hazardous driving, but we're always surprised at the number of unexplained single-vehicle accidents. It's just those types of wrecks the new system should help prevent.

But safety officials shouldn't stop there.

Surely the same low-cost computerization that helped make ABS, air bags and stability control can be targeted at other driving safety problems such as collisions.

And, perhaps it's time to re-examine the issue of technology that might keep impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel.